Ronald Gasser, the man who admitted to fatally shooting former New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs running back Joe McKnight, has been jailed and charged with manslaughter, according to The New Orleans Advocate.
Joe McKnight’s shooter jailed, charged with manslaughter
If convicted, Ronald Gasser could face up to 40 years in prison.
Photo by Jeff Golden/Getty Images
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
Gasser shot McKnight after an altercation after an apparent road rage incident in Terrytown, La. on Dec. 1. He was taken into police custody after admitting to police that he shot McKnight and turning over his firearm, but was later released and no charges were filed.
The decision to release Gasser without charging him in McKnight’s death was met with widespread criticism. When details emerged of a previous road rage arrest on Gasser’s record, it raised more questions. According to Ramon Antonio Vargas of the New Orleans Advocate, Gasser was arrested in 2006 after a road rage altercation led him to assault a man in the very same intersection where he shot and killed McKnight.
Gasser was charged with misdemeanor simple battery in that incident, and prosecutors later dropped the charge.
Manslaughter in the state of Louisiana is defined as taking someone’s life due to “sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection.” If Gasser is convicted, he could face up to 40 years in prison.
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